About The Wesley Centre
The Wesley Centre is a Christian voice in the public conversation. In dialogue with other faith traditions, we reflect on the Christian experience of God and ask how some of the big questions in politics, economics, law and society look in the light of that experience. We promote an expansive vision of Christian faith, one which welcomes everyone exactly as they are and sees a place for every person in a society based on justice and the common good. We run events and discussions; we write articles, papers and opinion pieces. We believe in speaking respectfully with those who agree and those who disagree with us, and in rising above divisions based on party or politics. Sometimes we look for answers; sometimes we try to ask better questions. Grounded in academic research, our work brings scholarly rigour to public theology. We hope to bring fresh perspectives—not always our own—to the most important questions in public life.
Theology
Public Policy
Theology
Theology is what we do when we think about God, and the world in relation to God. For Christians, this thinking is shaped by our encounter with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Ethics
Public Policy
Theology
Ethics is about how we live and relate to each other. Christian ethics tries to think about this in the light of the idea that God is love and that we are called to love every person, including our enemies.
Public Policy
Public Policy
Public Policy
Public policy refers to the way our society is set up: its laws, structures, customs and institutions. Christians are called to imagine what these might look like if we took seriously Christ’s concern for the most vulnerable among us.
What is Public Theology?
For Christians, theology is about asking what our experiences of God, as revealed in Jesus, might have to say about human life, including the ethical, social, and political questions facing our world.
Public theology is an attempt to speak out of our belief in a God who is love, into the world as we find it today—a world in which too many people are caught up in cycles of poverty and violence, in which many of us ignore or even despise those who are different to us, and in which our climate is changing in dangerous and damaging ways. It involves grappling with current public policy debates, while at the same time interrogating the values that lie behind those debates.
It has become a cliché to say that we live in a divided world, but it’s true. People of faith live in bubbles no less than anyone else. The Wesley Centre brings people together in respectful and patient dialogue, exploring each other’s positions without rushing to judgement, respecting differences, and looking for common ground. We try to model the kind of dialogue a divided world needs.
We aim to inform, engage, and influence public debate in order to bring about a fairer and more compassionate Australia where everyone in our society might flourish.
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